The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, 2006)

I'm rating this game independent of the series. If I were to compare it to the other Zelda games, I would give it a "Poor" rating.

The one thing Zelda Wii does well is provide a powerful atmosphere. The entire game is oozing (literally sometimes) with atmosphere. You can't help but want to dip into it again and again until you've won. Unfortunately, it does several things poorly. Zelda Wii is a pretty game but it lacks substance. This is a very, very easy game. This is a short game. It amazes me at how the designers can put so much detail into a combat scene, yet make the combat scene short-lived and very easy. It *is* pretty, though.

Each area is intimately detailed. In the game you travel across every type of landscape. You will be sledding in the icy mountains at one point. At another, you will be riding a giant pig in the desert. Then, we have the Twilight world. For lack of a better word, it is awesome. The particle effects used to "pull" Link, the main character, into the Twilight world are very neat. The monsters and areas here are also very well done. They do exactly what the designers wanted. They make you feel vertigo, delirium, fear, etc. This is from a purely Visual standpoint, however. The gameplay doesn't back up the amazing visual display this game provides.

The gameplay is standard swordplay fare. You're a guy... with a sword... swing the sword. Granted, we swing the Wii Remote to produce the sword swing, which is great, but we're still doing the same activity we've done in this type of game for years. It's nothing new, folks. We have missile weapons. The bow and arrow is standard point and shoot. The boomerang is neat in that we choose its path and fire it. However, it is rarely practical to do that in combat, so it acts more like a puzzle-piece rather than a unique fighting tool. In fact, most combat situations are solved with your sword. This is made true because of the many sword techniques that you will learn.

As the game progresses, you unlock new sword abilities. It's wonderful these abilities are available. However, with the exception of the death strike, their application is rarely practical. The draw-slice skill is useful against one type of monster, for example. The spin-behind-attack is useful against a select-few as well. Instead of being moves that one can string into a cohesive skill set for any sword fight, they turn into a unlockable solution for an individual monster. While this may Work, it doesn't make the sword-skills an overly amazing addition to the game. They're simply Not Needed to beat this game. As are many things made available. For example, the heart containers after a boss fight are arguably needed.

I am not an overly skilled gamer, but I'm pretty good. I challenge myself on Zelda games by beating them with minimum possible hearts. This game is beatable with three. So I only used three heart containers. I died but Once. The reason is that the bosses have very distinguishable patterns. They all provide copious regeneration. The levels provide no challenges that overly threaten health totals. Even the time I died, I considered it a fluke. The game simply isn't difficult. I can't imagine an average gamer who acquires all heart containers to die at any point during the game. So, if you want a challenge, don't buy this.

That's just it. If you want a visually stunning title for your Wii, this is your game. If you want a challenge, go elswhere. This is child's play.

Thanks,

Matt